All You Desire

All You Desire, by Kirsten Miller.

Every time she closed her eyes, she heard him say, You're in too deep. Was she, Haven wondered. Had she really fallen for Adam - been taken in by his lies? Iain seemed to think it was the only explanation for her change of heart. Maybe he was right, but Haven's gut kept insisting that he had to be wrong. She felt something for Adam. And when she let her thoughts wander, they almost always ended up at the scene of their kiss. In Adam's presence, she felt more than mortal. And she was flattered by the lengths to which he'd gone to win her heart. But Adam hadn't bedazzled her. Haven was still capable of thinking clearly.

This is book #2 in The Eternal Ones series (click here for my review of book #1, The Eternal Ones). The way it ended, I am hoping that there will be another book in the series as well, otherwise I will always be wondering about the ending.

In this novel, Haven and Iain (who faked his death in book #1) must come back to New York City to search for her good friend, Beau, who has gone missing. A shady group of women called the Horae claim that they can help Haven find him, but at a price: she must make Adam Rosier, the leader of the Ourosboros Society, fall in love with her, and then they will trap him forever so that he can no longer do harm to others. Adam has been in love with Haven ever since he saw her in her first life, centuries ago, but Haven now thinks that he has reformed his ways, and she must decide if she wants to help the Horae or not.

This book was even better than first in the series. Haven is torn between Adam, once she has seen the "good side" of him, and Iain, even though in most of her previous lives she has chosen Iain. With the help of Phoebe, one of the Horae, she has visions of one of her past lives, as Beatrice Vettori, and she slowly realizes that the events that played out back then are relevant to her life now, in the present day.

I am very much hoping that a third Eternal Ones book will be published. Meanwhile, you can follow the author on Twitter, @bankstirregular, for updates.

5 stars out of 5.

All You Desire will be in bookstores on August 9, 2011.

*Disclosure: I was provided an ARC of this book by the author to review. The opinions listed, however, are my own.

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Matched

Matched, by Ally Condie.

"Cassia. Do you regret your decision to be Matched? Do you wish that you had chosen to be a Single?"

"That's not it."

"Then what is it?"

"I think people should be able to choose who they Match with," I say lamely.

"Where would it end, Cassia?" she says, her voice patient. "Would you say next that people should be able to choose how many children they have, and where they want to live? Or when they want to die?"

This book was amazing and the sequel, Crossed, is coming out in November 2011. Cassia lives in a dystopia society where the Government tells them who they will marry, how many children they will have (and this must happen before the woman turns 31), and where they will live. The citizens have the "luxury" of dying on their 80th birthday, before they have the chance to incur diseases like Alzheimers or other degenerative ones. Cassia has never questioned the system, and is in fact pleased when she is Matched with one of her childhood and best friends, Xander. When they give her information about her match on a computer card, however, the picture that comes up is not Xander's, but rather of another local boy, Ky. Cassia must decide if she wants to stay with Xander or make it work with Ky, who is an Aberration, and if ultimately she wants to break the Government rules.

This novel reminded me of a combination of The Giver, in that old people are killed when they get to be old, and The Handmaid's Tale, for some reason, which is also set in a dystopian society. I am very much looking forward to reading Crossed when it comes out in November.

4.5 stars out of 5.

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Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins.

At least the people in my new school speak English. It was founded for pretentious Americans who don't like the company of their own children. I mean, really. Who sends their kid to boarding school? It's so Hogwarts. Only mine doesn't have cute boy wizards or magic candy or flying lessons.

This book was hilarious. It follows Anna, whose parents make her move to France to go to an American boarding school there for her senior year of high school, and her adventures in Paris, in particular with one boy she meets there. Anna reminded me a lot of Mia from The Princess Diaries in terms of tone of voice, and she has a lot of crazy people in her life that were interesting to "meet."

The author's next book, Lola and the Boy Next Door, is forthcoming in September of this year.

4.5 stars out of 5.

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The Eternal Ones

The Eternal Ones, by Kirsten Miller.

(from the back book cover)
Have you ever fallen in love at first sight?
Do you long for a place you've never been?
Do you often experience the sensation of deja vu?

If you've answered yes, to any of these questions, you may have experienced a previous life.
The Ouroboros Society can help you discover your past - and even reconnect with lost loves. We urge you to contact us today.
www.OuroborousSociety.com

This book was insanely good, and I'm very glad that its sequel will be coming out in August. Haven Moore, who lives in Snope City, Tennessee, has always had memories of being a woman named Constance, even when she was a little girl. She also has memories of Constance's great love, Ethan, and she believes that at some point in her life they will find each other again. When she sees a picture of millionaire Iain Morrow in the tabloids, she realizes that it's Ethan, and she must go to New York City - of which she also has deep memories of - to find him.

There were so many characters in this book and they all came together perfectly, with tons of twists and turns to boot. Reincarnation is always an interesting subject, and The Eternal Ones captures all of its intricacies.

4.5 stars out of 5.

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The Stormchasers

The Stormchasers, by Jenna Blum.

But even more Karena is crying for herself. She cries because of her cowardice, because she told Charles she would come back and never did. She cries because of her selfishness, because she has turned him in not just so he could get help but so she would be free to go. She cries because of these things she has discovered in her own cold heart, and most of all she cries because there are so many things she will never be able to tell anyone, not even her best friend; because her whole life long, there will be so much nobody will ever know.

I really enjoyed this book, the second by author Jenna Blum. I wasn't sure at first if I would or not, because I don't know anything about stormchasing, but Blum creates her scenes and character very vividly, that one can't help but be pulled into the story, which follows Karena as she searches for her twin brother, Charles, whom she hasn't seen in 20 years. She decides the best way to do this is to follow the storms that he does, with a stormchasing company, and eventually she finds him; when she does, the book takes us 20 years into the past, to show how they became estranged in the first place, which I also really liked because we get to see why they lost touch.

Blum's first novel is entitled Those Who Save Us, and I will soon be adding that to my list of books to read.

4 stars out of 5.

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review. The opinions listed, however, are my own.

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Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen.

I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.

When you're five, you know your age down to the month.

Even in your twenties you know how old you are. I'm twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It's a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I'm - you start confidently, but then you stop. You were going to say thirty-three, but you're not. You're thirty-five. And then you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it's decades before you admit it.

Water for Elephants will be in theaters next Friday (April 22), starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in two of the lead roles, and so I thought I would read the novel first. I'm glad I did, as it was very good.

The novel follows Jacob (Pattinson, in his younger incarnation), who is now 93 years old and living in a nursing home. A circus has come to town and has got the nursing home residents all atwitter, and he is remembering how, when he was twenty-four, he used to work in the circus. The story is told in flashbacks to this time, and it's interesting to see how the past events have helped shaped whom he is in present-day.

Jacob falls in love with Marlena, one of the horse performers, but there's one problem: she's already married, to August, one of the leaders of the circus, who is also a paranoid schizophrenic. She married him when she was 17, to escape her parents in Boston, who wanted to marry her off to the richest man they could find, regardless of his age and looks, and the circus and August, a handsome man, seemed like the ideal choice at the time. Jacob was studying to be a vet at Cornell when he finds out that his parents have died in a car crash, and he jumped on the first train he found, which happened to be that of the Benzini Brothers', a traveling circus act.

The book was fantastic and I am very excited to see its movie adaptation, hopefully next week sometime.

4.5 stars out of 5.

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The Murderer's Daughters

The Murderers Daughters, by Randy Susan Meyers.

For one mean minute, I thought about what life would be like without my sister leaning on me, the end of constant responsibility for her body and soul, but before the idea could settle in, I slapped the thought out of my head.

We were here because I'd let my father into our house. Merry had her scar because I'd opened the door. That's why we were at Duffy. Visions of my mother's body floated up from where I'd buried them. I'd let my father into our house. I'd let him hurt everyone.

This novel was excellent. It follows two girls, Lulu and Merry, as they grow up as orphans, because of an incident when Lulu was 10 and Merry was 5 and their father killed their mother, as well as stabbing Merry. Their mother told Lulu to run for help, and she did, but not before their father had wielded his knife upon Merry and their mother. The father gets sent to prison and the girls live with their grandmother - his mother - for a while, but soon she dies and they are sent to an orphanage, as no one from their mother's side of the family wants to deal with them anymore. Eventually, one of the ladies who works at the orphanage adopts them, but there are issues there as well, and the girls never feel truly satisfied with their home life.

The book follows them from the 1970s until the 2000s, and we see both Lulu and Merry grow up and how this incident, which took place so early in their lives, affects them throughout.

4.5 stars out of 5.


*Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book to review. However, the opinions listed are my own.

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